15-18 -25 -28-30 -40 and all that Jazz

A recent post on one of the Facebook Napoleonic groups set me thinking. A chap opined that Old Glory figures were "a bit smaller" than some more modern figures. Personally I wondered  OG have- to me always been somewhat in the middle of the size range bigger than some smaller than others  but usually not much in it. Now I know some fellas really REALLY obsess about this stuff  "is maker A 25mm or 26.72mm and does it match with maker B's 27.37 mm and are they measured bootlace to nostril  or  kneecap to widows peak? " It is not as if in the great scheme of things it actually matters all that much- a bit yes- sometimes but not a whole lot. 3mm is stylistically and proportionately  more of a difference between 15mm and 18mm  that 25mm is to 28mm - especially when each individual sculptor has different ideas of what actually constitutes measurement.
 However stress not ! I don't- or not about this anyway! Personally I have always though it was more about presentation than mere millimetres . Though you do have to be careful and not all makes automatically look right with all other makes but with a little care you can even put Maker As figures on Maker B's horse- which I have done in both 28mm and 40mm with - speaking personally- some success. Doing that makes you models a little more individual and less like the perryherd which cannot be a bad thing in itself unless  you like your personal collection to be like everyone else's personal collection .....

A selection of 40mm ECW figures by various makers. Sash and Saber, Drabant and Romanoff. With bits mixed up from each to create individual models

Left to right-Romanoff  Sash and Saber--Sash and Saber on Drabant horse then 2 Romanoff with Sash and Saber Scottish heads. All 40mm

2 conversions Sash and Saber  rider on  Drabant horse - but with Romanoff pistol holsters and Drabant on a Sash and Saber Horse.

Some of this I have of course covered in previous posts but it bears repeating when many many figures look just like many many other figures and with plastic it is often worse. All this before I get onto same old same old painting styles, which is of course a bit more of a minefield. Figure painters these days are 10 a penny- though good ones come a lot more expensive and there are some VERY good painters out there but many are beyond those of us who do not have a hugely thick wallet.

28mm now. Perry- I think or perhaps Warlord. Old Glory Old Glory, Elite and last the short dude is a foundry.

Stadden 30mm and Old Glory French Legere. Some chaps seem to think OG are smaller than "modern makes. I think that this selection of shots should lay that one to rest. 

Same Old Glory French Legere next to a rather chunky Front Rank 

Cavalry as always left to right Hichliffe, Old Glory, Front Rank and lastlya Stadden 30mm on a Willie horse- only this last figure looks overly large here

  Esses figure on a Formost horse. Foremost figure on Old Glory horse- again comparing to the 30mm Stadden/Willie combination 

15mm  Blue Moon Napoleonic and Command Decision Moderns. Don't have any other 15mm makes to compare. 

Now as it happens I have used professional painters - and still do- though not nearly as much as I used to. I have to say thant I find some very samey in style - a sort of "3 layered received wisdom" which sometimes works and sometimes does not. This is often merely an apeing of the "magazine style" which in my view helps to create a very samey look when added to the samey look of many of today's perr-a-like figures. Personally I like different styles - both of figures and paintwork. Variety is the spice I have always thought.

What amuses me about the selection of "28mm" pictures is that withthe exception of the Stadden 30mm and the Perry/Warlord  all of these figures were advertised as 25mm if you go back to the 1980s and early 1990s makes a bit of a mockery of all this 3mm angst does it not ?